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Tribalism, Identity and Citizenship in Contemporary Qatar
Abstract
This paper explores the perseverance and resurgence of tribalism as a sociological component of contemporary Qatari society. The study of tribes and tribalism has a long and storied history in the ethnographic tradition centered upon the Arabian Peninsula. That scholarly literature posited the tribe as a sociological adaptation interwoven with the pastoral nomadic traditions of the region -- essentially, tribe was principally grasped as an environmentally determined social form. With the rapid urbanization and social change characteristic of Qatar and the entire khaleej, the pastoral nomadic underpinnings of the tribe have largely disappeared throughout the region. Despite that shift, tribe remains a demonstrably important social fact in contemporary Qatari identity and figures centrally in the way many individuals conceive of their relationship to the state. Our analysis of tribalism in Qatar is grounded in a mixed methods approach that, first, utilizes quantitative data derived from a survey of 787 Qatari citizens; we subsequently utilize a series of ethnographically-focused interviews to qualitatively extend our analysis and interpretation of the data presented by the survey. The data we present demonstrate the perseverance of tribal solidarity amongst substantial components of the Qatari population, and further indicate a correlation of that tribal solidarity with higher education levels, higher income levels, and higher religiosity. Interpreting these results, we point to a genealogical conception of citizenship that provides an active lens through which a variegated and hierarchical relationship to the state is articulated. Overall, this suggests a reconceptualization of the tribe not as a vestige of a traditional past, but rather as an active and modern form of belonging central to the contestations of social power in the khaleej.
Discipline
Sociology
Geographic Area
Qatar
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries